Stars In Motion: Impact in Star Formation, Compact Objects, and Galactic Centers

The era of high-resolution infrared imaing and astrometry was ushered in with the advent of large-format infrared detectors in space and on ground-based telescopes equipped with adaptive optics. These capabilities enable unique experiments in many fields of astronomy, especially the study of the disk and center of our Galaxy. I will present our astrometric experiements to test theories of star formation and show evidence for a changing initial mass function in the extreme environment of our Galactic center. I will also present eraly results from our search for free-floating stellar mass black holes using astrometric microlensing.  Last, I will discuss adaptive optics (AO) development efforts that improve astrometric precisions and expand AO to larger fields of view needed for sparse field astrometry and extra-galactic surveys.

Speaker: Jessica Lu, Univ. of Hawaii